Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tattoo Dreams – TruthAbout2pac.com



Tupac Amaru Shakur, better known to the world as 2Pac was the most influential, most prolific rapper of our generation. We had just celebrated what would have been his 40th birthday this year, and are coming upon the 15th year anniversary of his untimely death on September 13th, 2011. This year I am sure there will be many events within the Hip Hop community commemorating the death of Tupac Shakur. For one, the Outlawz, a group founded by 2Pac, will release their final album on that day. I am sure many radio stations will play all of his hits that day. Radio may play 2Pac’s hits but will they relay his message?

The late Gil Scott Heron said the revolution will not be televised; but I say it will be digitized. The Arab Spring probably would not have happened if the technology wasn’t there to encourage the people of Egypt, Tunisia and Syria to protest. With the help of the internet, and social media sites like Twitter.com, YouTube and FaceBook, you could start a revolution. Enter TruthAbout2Pac.com. The site dedicated to the truth about a revolutionary man, poet, rapper, actor named Tupac Shakur. www.TruthAbout2Pac.com is not just a website; it is a social network for people who have an affinity for 2Pac and it’s a community of truth seekers.
You can do many things on TruthAbout2Pac.com; start by creating a profile at the site, view videos, create and comment on blogs, & have discussions on the many forums on the site.

Founder of the site, Asher Underwood, is who I’d call a 2pac-ologist. As a teenager, he went to see the film ‘Juice’ and saw 2Pac in his first starring role as Bishop. Asher was intrigued and hooked on him since. Years later, before starting the website, he took classes at University of Washington in Seattle, and wrote a few essay’s on 2Pac for an assignment. He went into further researching the life of Tupac Shakur. Asher is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to 2Pac, and after a conversation with him, I learned a lot more about the man, Tupac Shakur. Mr. Underwood relayed that 2Pac was more than an actor/rapper, and was into numerology, and metaphysics. I decided to pick up a few books and articles on 2Pac to gain more insight on him as well. Needless to say, I am now a member of the site TruthAbout2Pac.com.

www.TruthAbout2Pac.com is a site worth checking out if you are a 2Pac fan, or if you’ve ever purchased a movie, poem, or album from 2Pac. I found out from member & author John Potash of a recently read book “FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders”

That 2pac was misunderstood--he was only pretending to be this gangster in order to appeal to gangs and politicize them. That’s not who he really was. He was really an intellectual prodigy, a brilliant guy who didn't belong to gangs. 2Pac was to politicize gangs.

Once you sign up (you can sign up with your facebook account too!) you will see how deep the rabbit hole goes. You may even find the lyrics or video to your favorite 2Pac song. You may even find out the Truth About 2Pac.


Sunday, July 31, 2011

Drummer from Legendary Roots crew Questlove DJ's at CENTRAL in Santa Monica


If you know Hip Hop, you know the 4 elements of it; Emcee'ing,
Break'ing, Graffiti, & DJ'ing. Being part of Hip Hop music, you must
KNOW YOUR ROOTS. If you KNOW Hip Hop, then you must have heard of The
Roots, for that matter. The Roots, the house band for Late Night with
Jimmy Fallon, is a band from Philadelphia, started by Black Thought &
?uestlove back in circa 1986/87. Questlove aka Ahmir Thompson or
"Questo" is the drummer from the legendary Roots crew. who is also a
DJ. If his day job is drummer, and DJ by night, then ?uest doesn't
have to stick to his 9 to 5, because he has skills on the 1's and 2's.
He recently spun his legendary set on a crowd at CENTRAL S.A.P.C. in
Santa Monica, CA.




Opening up for DJ ?uestlove was DJ Murphy Lawless and The Beatards, an
electro Hip Hop group from New York City. They got the crowd hyped,
and ready for the epic set put on by ?uestlove. He spun over 200 hits,
usually starting out with an original record, then transitioning into
a current hit, that sampled that original song. First song he played
"P.Y.T." (Pretty Young Thing) by the late Michael Jackson, was a major
hit song in 1983. He then proceeded to slow down the original record,
upgraded the beat, and graduated to the second song "Good Life" by
Kanye West from his 2007 platinum album Graduation, which used a
slowed down sample of Jackson "P.Y.T". The crowd went wild! This went
on for the whole night. This was more than just a DJ set, he
essentially gave crowd a lesson in Hip Hop, and he went back to the
basics with music, back to the roots.















"Hip Hop is not a spectator sport, you have to participate!!!" yelled
by ?uestlove to the crowd. "No sitting on the sidelines." he demanded,
to get the audience more into his set and into what he was doing. An
hour into his it, the crowd was still bobbing and moving to his
selected songs, the well known hits from the past 25 years, to the
unknown, obscured samples a lot of the producers in Hip Hop got them
from. Overall, ?uestlove DJ'd one of the best sets I've heard in life
and the CENTRAL Social Aid and Pleasure Club in Santa Monica was a
good setting. You truly have to hear it for yourself. See him on "Late
Night with Jimmy Fallon" as the band's drummer, his day job, and
follow him on twitter @questlove to catch him doing his night job as a
DJ, to find out when and where he spins next. Also find out who's at
CENTRAL Santa Moncia @theCENTRALsapc